Tomorrow When The War Began

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The story in ”Tomorrow When The War Began” revolves round seven teenagers. They live in (and around) a city called Wombegonoo, which I believe lies in Australia.

The book starts when Ellie and her best friend Corrie, two of the seven principal characters, talks about how long it was since they last had a camp out. During the conversation, Ellie suggests that the two of them and some of their friends could head down to the river and have a camp there for some days. Both of them were very enthusiastic and decided that they would borrow Ellie´s parents´ Landrover and even go a little further, to a place called Tailor´s Stitch.

Said and done, Ellie and Corrie got permission from their parents and started calling their friends. All six of their friends wanted to come, but one, Chris, couldn´t because his parents were going overseas and they wanted him to look after the house.

During the time that the gang would be away, the rest of the city (and country) would celebrate Commemoration Day. Every year, a show was held at the Showground. There were contests, displays and many other things held there during a day or two.

The next day everyone left for Tailor´s Stitch with a Landrover packed with people, fresh water and food for more than a week. That was how long they had planned to stay there.

When everyone had arrived at Tailor´s Stitch, they parked the car and took out backpacks filled with food and other necessary things. Now they had a long walk in front of them. Their goal was to reach a smaller place called Hell, where it was rumoured that a murderer had fled after killing his wife a long time ago.

It was a troublesome way up to Hell, but the group was determined to reach it, and so they did. On the way, they discovered a very well made and hidden bridge in wood, made by human hands and with a lot of time spent on it being built. This bridge must have been built by someone having a lot of spare time, like the hermit (the murderer). Some of the people in the group was spooked by finding something like that out in the middle of nowhere, but they kept going and when they reached hell, they set up the camp and started getting comfortable.

Some nights later, when Ellie had to go to the toilet, she noticed that there were a lot of movement in the air. There were large military air planes flying pretty low in over the country. She supposed that they were going to be on some kind of air-show at the Commemoration Day and went back to bed.
The next day, they started to talk about the planes that had been flying over them during the night. Ellie told them that she had seen them, but what she didn´t know, but some of the other knew, was that there had been more and more planes coming in all night long.

When they got back home a few days later, they were chocked by seeing all the dogs on Ellie´s parents farm dead and that there wasn´t anyone at home either. That´s when Ellie remembered that the planes she had seen earlier neither had any lights switched on. She told the others and they got really scared. When they arrived at the next house, they discovered the same thing, no one was at home and the animals were dead. They started fantasise and it only led them to one thing... ...their country had been invaded while they had been camping in Hell!

Moving closer to the city and the Showground where the celebrations of Commemoration day was supposed to be held, they discovered that their fantasies had become reality, and that their families was kept prisoners on the Showground.

They found themselfs in the middle of a war, forced to survive by their own.

This is a summary of the first chapters in the book. To avoid getting killed, everyone has to grow up quickly and be prepared for the fact that they have to be very careful or that they might even be forced to kill to survive...
It´s very hard to write a summary of the complete book, since so much happens! But I can just hope that this is enough. Yes, you´ve done well!

2.3. Who is telling the story to the reader?

Both at the beginning and the end of the book, Ellie says that someone (Robyn I believe) had suggested that they would write down everything that they had experienced. Ellie was appointed the job and I guess that´s why everything in the book is seen from her perspective. In those situations where Ellie isn´t present, she only describes what the others has told her.

2.4. Is the story chronological or does it leap from the past to the present/future and then back to the past again etc.?

The story in itself doesn´t leap much from the present to the future or back, although the beginning and the end very much go back and forward. But I don´t think that is anything really relevant.

2.5. Is the reader to know more than the characters in the book?

I think that because the story already has happened and everything is told again, you can´t get away from the fact that it´s made up in advance (if that is what you mean with frame story - no a frame story is a story within another story).
Since the story is told from the beginning from the eyes of someone who has experienced the whole thing, the reader doesn´t find out anything more than the characters. The only thing that´s exposed to the reader is what the group members are planning, doing, how they feel etc.

2.7 Did the book end the way you expected?

The dumb thing is that the book didn´t end! It is just the first in a series, and the whole thing continues in the next book. That´s a bit disappointing since it´s most unlikely that I will be able to find the other parts. What I was expected was that the teenagers would start some kind of own community in Hell, or that they in some mysterious way would be able to rescue the people that were taken prisoners.

2.9. Your opinion of the book?

I can probably say that this was the second most best book that I´ve ever read, after Robinson Crusoe. Some bits were very hard to read, not because of the language, but the feelings you get when you think about how hard everything must have been for them. I have a tendency to wonder how I would have...